Polish Day - November Theme - MANicure

You may already be aware of Movember, the initiative to bring more attention to causes related to mens' health, particularly testicular cancer. And here's my mani to raise awareness for this cause......

If you'd like to see other bloggers taking part please see the links the below.....

The Lazy 15 Challenge - Gradient

It's the second day of an exciting new challenge hosted by Totally Nailed called "The Lazy 15" named as such because we're too lazy to do a whole 31 days!

Today's challenge is Gradient which like the first day's challenge is yet another first for me.  This is what I really enjoy about these challenges is doing something you've never done before and achieving a not too bad result.

Now, I'm participating in a lot of challenges at the moment so if I can use one mani to revamp another then that saves me a lot of time and thinking!!  So I used my red mani as the base colour and added two colours on top, pink & turquoise.  I've seen the gradient tutorials so off I go to the cleaning cupboard, get out a new sponge/scourer (you know the one's you get from the pound shop for about 24!) dolloped a bit of each colour polish onto a piece of paper, dabbed the sponge onto the polish and then my nails, well......easy peasy lemon squeezy!  

A lot easier than I thought and for my first attempt, not bad, if you haven't done it give it a go, it's good fun, easy, simple, effective, as ever onto the pics........

I got these polishes from my local market for about £1 each, they're really sparkly unfortunately my camera doesn't pick up the sparkle, but honest....they are!!!

Please see below for fellow bloggers participating in this challenge, new joiners welcome!

31 Day Nail Art - Red Nails

I'm a member of the Facebook Group British Nail Bloggers and Diva of The Teenage Shopaholic has organised for us (and anyone who wants to join) the infamous 31 Day Nail Art challenge which we are doing on a weekly basis rather than daily.

Day 1 - Red Nails.  I have about 300 polishes and I can count on one had how many of them are red!  Although I don't know why I don't wear red often as I love it when I do.  My fave red is Cutex Red She Said which is ancient, but it goes on really easy and it what I think a true red, topped with a bit of red glitter from Mavala Red Diamond.

And don't forget to check out what Diva and Stephanie have created this week!

The Lazy 15 Challenge - Tape Mani

First day of an exciting new challenge hosted by  Totally Nailed called "The Lazy 15" named as such because we're too lazy to do a whole 31 days!

This challenge is Tape Mani which is another first for me.  Had to have a few attempts and learnt along the way to pull the tape off while the top layer of polish is still wet, especially as some of the tape are holey.

Base coat is Nails Inc Shoreditch, 4 different tape varieties which I raided from my mum's craft box, topped with W7 black (which was an absolute pig to use), topped with some pink glitter. I'll deffo try a tape mani again, it's fun and you get a really good striking effect, oh and sorry for my poor index finger nubbin!  What a sorry state!  Onto the pics......

 This is the tape used on my middle finger

Here's the details of the Challenge if you'd like to join us

Llama Nails A-Z Challenge - H is for Half Moon Mani

The A-Z challenge is hosted by Llama Nails on Facebook. Llama Nails is a group of nail enthusiasts that share their love of polish, stamping and nail art in a fun, creative, and non-dramatic atmosphere. Join them! All are welcome! The only rule we have is no drama, save it for the llama!

This week is H and I've chosen Half Moon Mani as I've never done one before, so ideal opportunity to do so.  I revamped last week's mani G is for Green Glitter Nails by adding black on top with the amazing green moons showing, added a few glequins, again first time I used them so a lot of firsts all round.  

That's what I love about this challenge it makes me try different things and styles.  Onto the pics......

Raided my mum's craft box for these circles which I used as the template for the moons

My Glequins, a box of gorgeousness, which were £1.79 from Ebay, click here for them.

If you'd like to see some more blogs participating in this challenge, please check out the links below.

Llama Nails A-Z Challenge - G is for Green Glitter

The A-Z challenge is hosted by Llama Nails on Facebook. Llama Nails is a group of nail enthusiasts that share their love of polish, stamping and nail art in a fun, creative, and non-dramatic atmosphere. Join them! All are welcome! The only rule we have is no drama, save it for the llama!

This week is G, I was going to do a gradient but it got as far as the base colour and got scrapped.  So what else for G?  Well....green......and glitter!  So I used a couple of untrieds, only question is, why did I leave it so long to use these beautiful polishes???

Rimmel Green With Envy went on a dream and has one of those flat wide brushes, and Color Club Holiday Splendor, can't stop looking at it, it's gorgeous!  Onto the pics, the polish colour looks teal but they are actually a bold emerald green.....hmmm will need to look at camera settings!

If you'd like to see some more blogs participating in this challenge, please check out the links below.

Winner of my 200 follower Giveaway - woop woop!!

Thank you to everyone that participated in my 200 follower giveaway, my followers are now up to 326, so time for another giveaway shortly!  Congratulations Stephanie, check out Steph's blog Never Mind Suzi this is Stephanie.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Style Pen Magnetic Polish

I'm quite into magnetic nails polishes, the range of colours and effects are vast.  So whilst window shopping on Ebay I found this magnetic polish and what drew me (pardon the pun) to it was the circular magnet.  To be honest I didn't care for the polish just the magnet, however the polish is lovely.  I love the circular magnetic effect and can't wait to try it out on my other polishes, and onto the pics.......

Llama Nails A-Z Challenge - F is for Foil Fail

The A-Z challenge is hosted by Llama Nails on Facebook. Llama Nails is a group of nail enthusiasts that share their love of polish, stamping and nail art in a fun, creative, and non-dramatic atmosphere. Join them! All are welcome! The only rule we have is no drama, save it for the llama!

This week is F, I was going to do feathers but it all went horrible wrong, so I remembered a post I read by My Lucid Bubble about a topcoat that works with foils, check out the post it really inspired me to give this a go.  The idea is that you use a water based varnish like a top coat to stop the foil from crinkling/rippling.  I couldn't get the water based varnish mentioned in My Lucid Bubble's blog as it's from the USA and I'm in the UK, so I Googled water based varnishes and found Humbrol and got it for a couple of quid from Ebay.

I'm sure this could have worked better if I'd taken more time over it, but as per usual I'm too impatient and rushed it.  

Was it because I used a different Varnish?  Was it because I rushed it?  Is it because I'm just plain crap at it?  What ever it is I will deffo give this another go and take more time over it, and I'll even see if I can buy the varnish from the USA as I do love the effect of the foil.

How long will this mani last?  Probably to the end of me typing this!

Here's a photo of my little girl Blitz to make up for it, love her!

Here are what the other lovely Bloggers are doing for this Challenge

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200 Follower Giveaway - yay!!!!

Wooohooo I've reached 200 (202) followers!  Woop Woop.  I've been blogging for 18 months and it took a year to reach 50 followers, in the last 6 months I've gained 152!  I put this down to joining some fantastic groups on Facebook, in particular British Nail Bloggers and participating in some great nail challenges through Llama Nails, Crumpet's Nail Tarts, Polly Polish Polish Days, Adventures In Stamping to name just a few.  So if you wanna have some more fun with your nails, increase your followers and gain some lovely nail blogging friends, I can highly recommend these links.

Righto, to celebrate my achievement, I'm giving away 5 mini Nails Inc polishes (my fave brand and British too!).

L-R: Westbourne Terrace, Shoreditch, Piccadilly Circus, Sumner Place, Muswell Hill (all 4mls)

Fill out the Rafflecopter thingymabob below, open INTERNATIONALLY (as long as your country accept it), winner will have 48 hours to respond and I will do my utmost to contact the winner as I nearly lost a prize myself as I didn't receive the winning email, through no fault of mine or the prize giver just one of those things and don't want my winner to miss out.  Runs for a week.  

Good Luck! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Llama Nails A-Z Challenge - E is for Electrified!

The A-Z challenge is hosted by Llama Nails on Facebook. Llama Nails is a group of nail enthusiasts that share their love of polish, stamping and nail art in a fun, creative, and non-dramatic atmosphere. Join them! All are welcome! The only rule we have is no drama, save it for the llama!

This week is E and I struggled with this.  So I got out all my E polishes by name & brand.....but what to do?  Sat looking at them for about day, well not a whole day staring at them, but it took me a day to suss out what to do.  Picked up the first bottle which is an untried I won in a giveaway so Ithought I'd give it a whirl - L.A. Colors 'Electrified', so that made me thing of electric which in turn to lightening, still with me?

 L.A Colors 'Electrifield'

 Here's the technical bit

 Et Voila!

 The lightening strike is the lovely Nails Inc Culford Gardens

Here are what the other lovely Bloggers are doing for this Challenge

Adventures In Stamping Metallic Madness

This weeks challenge on the Facebook group Adventures in Stamping is Metallic Madness.

I used a pale blue base colour from a Marks & Spencer set I bought yonks ago, and topped with Funky Fingers Sound Check, which I'd won in a giveaway.  The FF Sound Check is far more metallic in reality, unfortunately my camera hasn't picked it up very well.  Konad plate M65.

Anyhoo, onto the pics......